The present invention relates to a parking brake for a motor vehicle, including an actuating lever, said actuating lever being supported rotatably about an axis, a catch element; a pawl element, said pawl element being able to be brought into engagement with said catch element and being connected to a release device, and a pull cable, said pull cable being connected to the actuating lever.
A multiplicity of embodiments of hand- or foot-actuated parking brakes are known from motor-vehicle construction practice. Generally, parking brakes of this type are based on the principle that when a rotatably mounted actuating lever is actuated, a pull cable, which is fastened to the actuating lever or is connected to the latter via a further mechanism and is connected at the other end to a motor-vehicle brake, is moved. The lever is locked in an actuated position of the brake by means of a catch which comprises a plurality of teeth and in which a spring-actuated detent pawl element engages. In order to release the brake, the detent pawl element is released from the catch by actuation, for example, of a push-button by means of a linkage, a restoring force produced by the pull cable itself or by further spring means resetting the actuating lever into its starting position.
Parking brakes are generally either arranged as hand-actuated parking brakes in the region of the transmission tunnel, which is provided at the same time for storage options, or as foot-operated parking brakes in the foot well on the driver's side. As a rule, a parking brake is actuated only before the beginning and after the end of a journey. It is therefore desirable to be able to produce parking brakes in as small a size and as cost-effectively as possible. In addition, in order to optimize the assembly sequences in the motor-vehicle construction, a parking brake is to be present as a subassembly which is premanufactured to as large an extent as possible and which can be fitted with little outlay.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,368 describes a cable operating apparatus, in particular a foot-operated parking brake, comprising an actuating lever which is arranged between two mounting brackets. The actuating lever is rotatably supported by means of a pivot pin feeding through an annular bushing and extending over the outside of the mounting brackets. This and further features, in particular the general shape of the mounting brackets, the diameter of the actuating lever in direction of its axis of rotation and the lateral mounting of a ratchet means to the actuating lever, cause a significant total width of the apparatus in the direction of the axis of rotation of the actuating lever.